Merrillville's Star Plaza Theatre, Radisson Hotel to close

Philip Potempa / Post-Tribune

The waterfall in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza soon will splash no more. Hotel officials said the hotel and adjacent Holiday Star Theatre would be razed and replaced by a new upscale hotel.

The waterfall in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza soon will splash no more. Hotel officials said the hotel and adjacent Holiday Star Theatre would be razed and replaced by a new upscale hotel. (Philip Potempa / Post-Tribune)

Northwest Indiana's Star Plaza Theatre will be demolished next year, turning to rubble one of the region's main entertainment venues for nearly four decades.

Merrillville based White Lodging Services Corp. announced Tuesday it will close the Radisson Hotel in January and the adjacent Star Plaza Theatre in May 2017. The 330-room hotel will make way for a 215-room, higher-end hotel with some meeting and banquet space, but there are no plans to rebuild the theater.

The theater's booking company, Star Productions, meanwhile, will expand its services to other venues, according to the release. Events will continue through the spring.

Charlie Blum, CEO of Star Productions, said in the release that as White Lodging surveyed the hotel for renovations, it concluded the aging building and theater wouldn't be able to structurally accommodate its plans.

"It is with a heavy heart that we have come to the conclusion that the Star Plaza, which has been a cultural mecca for Northwest Indiana and Chicago area residents since 1979, must close its doors," Blum said in the release. "We all recognize what the theater means to our community and, of course, it has played a huge role in my life and the lives of my dedicated, hardworking staff."

White Lodging Services Corp. founder Bruce White, who also serves as chairman of the board, said in a statement that he was "saddened" by the pending closing of the Star Plaza Theatre and noted that it's still successful.

"The theater has always been successful thanks to the hard work of Charlie and his team, and in fact, this most recent season was one of our most successful in our history, which makes this decision to raze the building even harder," White said in the statement. "I know how much it has meant to the community, our patrons from throughout the Midwest, and so many in the entertainment industry during its 37 years of operation, and I personally have spent countless hours enjoying incredible performances at the theater."

South Shore Convention and Visitor Authority CEO Speros Batistatos said he had "mixed feelings" about the closing.

"That theater launched many a career in Northwest Indiana in hospitality — mine and others," Batistatos said. "But (razing the facility) is long overdue. You're looking at a Holidome Holiday Inn built in the 1970s, and there comes a point where you can throw a bunch of money at something, and no amount of carpeting or new curtains or bedding is going to help. We understand the decision."

While Batistatos is concerned that Northwest Indiana will be losing at least 100 hotel rooms in the next 18 months, what concerns him even more is that the area will be losing between 20,000 and 30,000 square feet of convention space when the Radisson is torn down.

"This opens the door to have a much-needed conversation about a public/private partnership to build a convention and meeting space that we've been talking about for years," he said. "This conference space (in the Radisson) is gone, and they're not replacing it. This is what happens when a private company says, 'We're done.'"

Nevertheless, Batistatos said it could turn out to benefit the area.

"This is a fork in the road, and it's going to take some work, but do we want to step up? We can make the argument that we can change the look of the region for the next 40 or 50 years," Batistatos said. "This could be a real platinum-lined cloud if we have the willingness to do it."

White Lodging Communications Director Kathleen Sebastian said the company is offering Radisson's employees a separation package that includes options to transfer to other local White Lodging properties as well as other relocation opportunities throughout the country. There will also be positions available in the new facility, Sebastian said. The company is still determining what will happen with any events customers have booked with the hotel past its closing date, she said.